Series Finale.
There are two more weekends of the show’s “Best of 2016” to come, but this is the last original work I’ve written for this show. Photo by audience member Ariana Chae.
Trivia: The duffel bag used in this play is from my high school, because I still had it and because that’s when I first saw the show. The projection on the back wall is of somebody driving through Zion National Park in Utah, a place that Dana and I went while on our honeymoon.
SERIES FINALE
(c) 2016 Bilal Dardai
(All Neos onstage in a loose cluster around BILAL. The farewell scene. Before BD interacts with each one of them, they set up one chair to help build the form of a car facing upstage, and the large block behind the chairs in the form of a trunk, before leaving the stage. There is a dinner plate in front of the driver’s seat.)
BD: (hugs LEAH) When I hug you it’s not to say goodbye.
LU: When I reminisce it’s not out of regret.
(They disengage.)
BD: (shakes KURT’s hand) When I tell you to look after the place it’s not because I don’t trust you.
KC: When I say something in response it doesn’t echo the first time we met.
(They disengage.)
BD: (hands TREVOR a deck of cards) When I hand you a prop it’s not to say I’ll be back for it.
TD: When I nod my head it doesn’t mean I accept that.
(They disengage.)
BD: (puts an arm around MALIC) When we look out over the audience we don’t see the sunset.
MW: When the lights change it doesn’t mean more than a few seconds have passed.
(Lights change to a sunset. They disengage. BD sits in the driver’s seat, picks up the dinner plate, and speaks to NICK over his shoulder.)
BD: When I put both hands on a dinner plate I don’t believe it’s a steering wheel.
NH: When I evoke the trunk I don’t put a suitcase in it.
(They disengage. LILY hands BILAL a duffel bag as if through the driver’s side window.)
BD: When the highway appears on the wall it doesn’t mean I’m traveling anywhere.
LM: When the music comes in it doesn’t mean the credits start rolling.
(A projection from the inside of a car traveling forward through the mountains appears on the back wall, underscored by Pete Yorn; “On Your Side.” BD stands and climbs back to the trunk, speaking to the audience.)
BD: When I stand up nothing crashes. When I speak to you it doesn’t break reality. When the play ends it doesn’t die. We are each of us stories told in chapters. When you turn a page you don’t forget the library where the books were found.
(He goes back to the driver’s seat and resumes holding the dinner plate. Lights fade to nothing, and then the projection disappears.)
CURTAIN
Creative Control 